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| Lime Rock Paddock Patter – Racers Don’t Know From Age |
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Paddock Patter - Racers Don't Know From Age
© Andrew S. Hartwell
We've got a lot of sunshine shining at LRP right now. (What else would sunshine do?) The clouds that share the sky with Mr. Sun are all of the amenable white variety, not a dark one in sight. This bodes well for the weekend which bodes well for the track. Fans love sunshine and the track loves fans that love sunshine too for all those smiling fans bring smiles to Skip Barber, the owner of Lime Rock Park. Yes, bright sun brings broad smiles and we caught up with a few folks wearing those smiles down pit lane.
Our first encounter was with a man name Bob Newman. He is driving the Next Generation Motorsports No. 128 BMW 330i running in the ST class of the KONI challenge. His co-driver is Daniel Orr.
Newman is 65 years old, a vintage racer in several senses, and a man who found his interest in racing never waned throughout his lifetime, although he did not pursue that interest until he had reached the age of 60.
"I began racing for my 60th birthday. I will be 65 next week. I do this for fun, along with a lot of vintage racing. I live in Roxbury, Connecticut so I am in the area. I do one KONI Challenge race a year and I try to make it the Lime Rock event. I also race a Porsche with Club Sport Racing in Riviera Beach, Florida. We run in an HSR event and we also run at the Monterey Historics (at Laguna Seca). I will run about 10 or 11 races in a year."
With so many drivers today coming up from the karting ranks, many starting at age 6 or so, we asked why Newman waited until that 6 was followed by a zero.
"Racing was something I always wanted to do and I needed to do it when I turned 60. I had raised a family and now I have the wherewithal to do it. I attended the Skip Barber School here and the experience was terrific. I learned a lot and many of the people I had instruction from I still see fairly often."
Newman looked to us to be holding back his broadest smile just a wee bit. We suspect that was because he was in the pits talking with us and not behind the wheel of the BMW. When we asked him what advice he had for anyone else who was looking to go racing but, like him, found they were a wee bit beyond their prime karting years, he said, "Go do it! Go out and have fun. If you want to do this, do it!"
Daniel DiLeo - There was no zero after the six when he started
During practice we caught up with Daniel DiLeo, a young Canadian driver running in the No. 77 Maxwell Paper Racing Porsche 997 in the GS class. His teammate is Bryan Sellers. DiLeo is doing double duty this weekend as he is also driving the No. 02 Maxwell Mazda RX-8 in the ST class, teamed with Kendall Smith. We learned that DiLeo's life revolves around racing and when he isn't racing himself, he is helping others perfect their racing skills.
"I've been racing for the better part of my life. I grew up in Ontario, Canada and did a lot of kart racing. I also run a kart track up there which is what I do when I am not racing. Any given weekend I am either driving myself or I'm helping some young people develop their karting skills. I am always at a track somewhere in North America."
DiLeo's first run in a professional sportscar series came in a few races in the Rolex Series GT class, running with TRG. "We did about a half dozen events last year with TRG and got on the podium a few times. This is the second year for Maxwell Paper and team owner Russ Smith putting together his own program. We are running in both classes here in KONI this year with thoughts of possibly running in GT next year."
DiLeo, like Newman, simply has it in his blood to get behind the wheel of a race car and chase after his favorite self-made form of entertainment.
"I love it. There is nothing else I like to do other than hang out at the race track and drive cool cars. This is something that I have been doing for my whole life. Nothing else makes me feel this way. If it has a motor it has to be in a car or a kart."
No motorcycles or boats?
"Motorsports on four wheels is what I most enjoy. When I am away from the track I will sometimes go fishing or play golf to relax."
DiLeo has raced at Lime Rock several times in the past and he remembers the old racing surface with the patches of concrete making the grip factor an open question on every lap.
"The concrete patches in the middle of the corners made it hard to find the right line through the corners. I haven't been out on the new asphalt yet so we will see how that pans out. In the past it has been a hard place to race because of the different levels of grip out there but the new surface looks great. This is the best this track has ever looked."
Now that the grip issue appears to be moot, we wondered about the level of competition - in terms of driver ability - to be found in this series and how that affected DiLeo's driving style.
"The variety of talent is the best part of the series! On any given weekend you come out to the race track and you find so many cars running in this series. It is great to be able to race against so many different makes of cars and drivers with so many different levels of experience. And when you look at the top 10 in the GS class it is usually 10 guys who can win in any form of racing - guys like Lally, Pobst, and Auberlen. And growing up in racing you get used to running in traffic and you remember to treat others the way you want to be treated - until you get to the end of the race and then anything goes!"
And racers of any age go too. Funny thing is, no matter when they started racing, they quickly found themselves smiling.
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